Largest Ship Docks at Port of Liverpool

The Port of Liverpool has seen the arrival of the largest ship ever to visit the port – HS Paris, capable of carrying more than 6,500 shipping containers, is the first post-Panamax vessel to stop at Liverpool. Before the expansion of Liverpool 2, this would have been an impossible task as the port could only accommodate vessels carrying 4,500 shipping containers or less.

The £400m investment in Liverpool 2 created a deep water container terminal that has the advantage to hold much larger vessels. The start was slow for Liverpool 2 due to weather delays that pushed back the opening a whole year, as well as a sinkhole that suddenly appeared during the construction.

Mark Whitworth, chief executive of Peel Ports Group, said: “This is a huge milestone for Peel Ports and the Port of Liverpool. The whole team is delighted to welcome HS Paris to the city for the first time. While we have the capacity to handle vessels up to 20,000 TEU, smaller post-Panamax ships are still very much part of our overall strategy and it’s essential that can accommodate those too. We can now do that thanks to our £400m investment at Liverpool 2, providing a shorter route to market for UK importers and exporters, which reduces their costs, congestion and carbon emissions.”